Handling? What handling?

fred888 · June 9, 2012, 21:03

Hi Guys,
Can anyone point me in the direction of a good supplier of uprated anti-roll bars and droplinks?
An idea of good and bad quality would also be helpful.
My car's handling like a pig and the symptoms seem to suggest excessive roll.
No stability in sweeping curves and god forbid I should hit a bump mid corner.
Any help and/or suggestions will be gratefully received.

Cheers

Anonymous · June 9, 2012, 21:08

Welcome Fred.
Might be worth checking tyre pressures, shocks for leaks, springs to make sure no broken bits, wheel bearings for play and tracking on all four wheels first.
Tyres in good shape and on the correct corners? Same brand?

mrzwei · June 9, 2012, 21:10

What sort of miles on the car and any history?
The stock set up handles very well indeed. The track guys want much more.

MattPerformance · June 10, 2012, 15:10

Quote from: "dick2ski"Welcome Fred.
Might be worth checking tyre pressures, shocks for leaks, springs to make sure no broken bits, wheel bearings for play and tracking on all four wheels first.
Tyres in good shape and on the correct corners? Same brand?

Wot he said!
Check the mechanicals first as there's no point doing anything else unless you know the basic components are sound. Tyre pressures and geo are the most common cause of poor handling in my experience but obviously depend on everything doing its job properly. Rubbish/ mis-matched/ incorrect size tyres are a factor but that's generally a problem when your'e driving on the limit*. All the other stuff will affect the car all of the time.

* The "limit" for some of the worst tyres/ tyre combinations can be pretty low though!

fred888 · June 10, 2012, 20:09

Hi Guys,
Thanks for the responses.
MY car's got 45K on it - low for year (2002).
The mechanicals look fine. I had all wheels off for restoring and checked linkages, shocks etc. Nothing loose or broken. Shocks completely dry.
Funny thing is, when cornering on slow tight twisties - she's spot on turn on a sixpence sort of thing. But on the fast flowing curves, she's a handful and vague at high speed on the motorway.
I do have different tyres front/back but all are so new, I really don't want to replace any of them just now.
My tyres are: Front - Zeon XTC 185/55 R15 Rear - Runway Enduro 205/55 R15 If anyone knows of issues with these tyres I would appreciate the heads up.
I have checked pressures and tried experimenting with lower/higher settings to no avail.

Any further suggestions will be greatly appreciated.

Cheers

Stephster · June 10, 2012, 20:18

I think the answer to your problems is in your tyres. For starters standard size for the back would be 205/50/15. Also, our cars are sensitive little souls when it comes to running mixed tyres, and it would explain your tricky handling in the situations you describe. My only suggestion would be getting the same all round. I replaced some 6mm yokos on the front recently, 'coz the back were worn and I had to get some new tyres. They didn't make that particular type anymore so I replaced all round with Toyos. I think you may just have to bite the bullet....

Wabbitkilla · June 10, 2012, 20:18

That choice of tyres is truly appalling and likely to be your problem.

Sent from a planet somewhere nearby

mrzwei · June 10, 2012, 20:28

Quote from: "Stephster"I think the answer to your problems is in your tyres. I think you may just have to bite the bullet....

Yeah, have you checked the pressures?

EDIT: Sorry, you have.

fred888 · June 10, 2012, 20:40

Sorry - typo on the tyres - I DO have 205/50 r15s on the rear.
OK - so are there proven tyres for the MR2?
Or is it just a case of hit and miss?
Has anyone heard of my tyre makes (Runway and Cooper Zeon) and had any positive feedback for either makes? What I intend to do is replace whatever tyres are regarded as crappiest and match up with the others. Or if both makes are crap - I'll sell the wife and buy a new set.
Cheers

peteopc · June 10, 2012, 20:49

I am afraid that all 4 of your tyres are bad and I mean dangerously bad. Swap all 4 for the correct size toyos and you won't believe the difference.

fred888 · June 10, 2012, 21:01

Thanks....I think.
I have researched Toyo Proxes. Reviews are positive with wear limits around 10K.
Any comments on these tyres?
£250 a set but fitting will have to be done by local garage.

Cheers

Anonymous · June 10, 2012, 21:05

Id get the tracking checked before spending big money on tyres. The tracking is adjustable on both axles. A previous owner may have clipped a kerb or worse, and knocked the geometry out.
The other possible no-cost option is to have a go in another 2 to get a direct comparison.

Jaik · June 10, 2012, 21:06

Agreed on the tyres, the '2 is incredibly sensitive to tyre choice. Which Toyo Proxes are they? A lot of members are happy with the T1-Rs.

peteopc · June 10, 2012, 21:08

There the tyres I have and I can't fault them. You should easily see 25000 from the fronts and 10000 from the rears if you are hard on them, nearer 15000 under normal use. I thought that the noise about cheap tyres was rubbish until I changed mine for toyos. The difference is unreal.

MattPerformance · June 10, 2012, 21:08

Sounds to me like the rear tracking is out. Although I have to agree that if you want a nice handling car (regardless of the geo) you need to ditch those tyres!

fred888 · June 10, 2012, 21:28

I'll book her in for tracking.
The previous owner was an elderly gent who pottered about and probably didn't know the difference.
The car has a full Toyota service history - you think they might have suggested better.
All my previous cars were saloons and a few MPVs - they all handled well enough with any tyre combination so I'm new to this scenario.
My wife's MX5 had different tyres and handled superbly.
Cheers for all the replys.

Anonymous · June 10, 2012, 21:38

Yes we are all wrong,doesnt matter about the tyres.Why ask if the advise is just going to be ignored. s:roll: :roll: s:roll:

stargazer30 · June 10, 2012, 21:43

Oh no, ditch finders on all four corners. My Jedi senses tell me this is going to end badly for the op unless he gets some decent rubber on there. If you don't god help you come winter s:flame: :flame: s:flame:

MattPerformance · June 10, 2012, 21:57

Quote from: "life of bryan"Yes we are all wrong,doesnt matter about the tyres.Why ask if the advise is just going to be ignored. s:roll: :roll: s:roll:

He hasn't ignored all the advice Bryan... just most of it!! s:lol: :lol: s:lol:

To be fair getting the geo checked/ corrected is a good start, and independent of and cheaper than replacement tyres. There's a fair chance that if the geo's badly out that once reset the car will handle to the OP's liking. Whether it's anywhere near as it could be (with some decent matched tyres) is another matter.

Also, be sure to get the tyre pressures checked with a CALIBRATED gauge. 2-3psi can make a massive difference and most gauges are not accurate to that level.

fred888 · June 10, 2012, 22:05

Quote from: "life of bryan"Yes we are all wrong,doesnt matter about the tyres.Why ask if the advise is just going to be ignored. s:roll: :roll: s:roll:

Who's ignoring? Not me - as you can see from my responses. s:?: :?: s:?:
Asking forum members with real MR2 experience helps me to make an informed decision.
I'll say this, the Runway Enduro tyres get bad reviews whereas the Cooper Zeons are supposed to be quite good.

Wabbitkilla · June 10, 2012, 22:07

The behaviour described is very similar to when my geometry was at its worst (set up by professionals s:roll: :roll: s:roll: ), so it's possible the rear geo is out. But those tyres need to be ditched before they ditch you s:wink: :wink: s:wink:

Probably a good idea to get new tyres and have the geo sorted at the same time ... you'll probably find the transformation a revelation s:D

s:D

Anonymous · June 10, 2012, 22:09

Quote from: "fred888"Who's ignoring? Not me - as you can see from my responses. s:?: :?: s:?:
Asking forum members with real MR2 experience helps me to make an informed decision.
I'll say this, the Runway Enduro tyres get bad reviews whereas the Cooper Zeons are supposed to be quite good.

Quote from: "fred888"I'll book her in for tracking.
All my previous cars were saloons and a few MPVs - they all handled well enough with any tyre combination so I'm new to this scenario.
My wife's MX5 had different tyres and handled superbly.

Sounds like you know best.

fred888 · June 10, 2012, 22:16

Oops - looks like you misread.
I meant - my previous cars were not two seater - rear engined sports cars so I have no point of reference.
The MX5 handled superbly and the MR2 is supposed to be better therefor a problem exists.
I'm not ignoring anyone - in fact I take all constructive suggestions very seriously.
I am taking advice and having the geo checked - hopefully tomorrow.
I will report the findings.

Stephster · June 11, 2012, 07:30

Ha ha, don't worry - we are a friendly lot really. Just make sure that when you post pics, your car doesn't have ears ! s;)

s;)

AckersMR2 · June 11, 2012, 11:13

Hi Fred,
And welcome to the club, although it might no seem like much of a welcome at the moment s:roll: :roll: s:roll:
I would agree with some others, get the geometry checked first and while their at it get a once over to check everything is all tight and as it should be before you go down the route of changing all the tyres, that is unless you can get some guarantees from others that they will refund you your outlay if new tyres don't sort your problems?

Now I am going to get ready to be s:flame: :flame: s:flame: here, but hey its a free (well not really s:lol: :lol: s:lol: ) country!
I've not long owned my 2 having had it for only 4mths, but reading the advice on here you would think that if your tyres don't say Toyo on them or they are 1psi out from advised then the car will fire you off into the undergrowth at the first bend you come upon like some sort of out of control exocet missile!
My 2 has Bridgestones fitted to it and they look pretty old at that. When I test drove the car it felt fine, handled well at speed and on corners with the go-kart like handling I had read about. 3-4 weeks after buying it I checked the tyre pressures, not because I felt any reason to, other than comments I had read on here. I found the pressures all over the place, nsr 36, osr 24, nsf 26, ofs 32. Now if the information on here is correct then I shouldn't even be here typing this now? I changed all the pressures, did I notice a difference....not really?

Now maybe my bum dyno isn't as sensitive as others or maybe i'm not driving my 2 near enough to the limit of the tyres to tell the difference but if others are and on public roads then the last thing they should be blaming is the tyres if they fire themselves off into a hedge backwards?

As I said i've not owned my car long enough to change the tyres yet so i'm hardly in a position to offer advice but I have owned a lot of sports bikes, with a lot of different tyre makes and compounds and been on a lot of track days. Now i'm far from any sort or GP god but when I used to do a lot of track days I like to think I was fairly quick, circuiting faster than guys on bigger better machinery than me and I never found my ability was beyond the performance of the tyres, this despite passing around the outside on corners of people on better machinery booted with the latest softest road/track tyres. And invariably when those people crashed it wasn't the fact they loaded/unloaded the suspension or braked/accelerated at the exact wrong moment, no, to them it was because they're tyres were crap!

Let the flaming begin..... s:flame: :flame: s:flame: s:lol: :lol: s:lol: